TORI SHORT STORY 6 - SKIING
by ShadowBat48
Summary: A wintery business trip that Dick, Tim, Tori and Damian are brought along on goes awry when new skier Damian goes off trail forcing Tori and Tim to go after him...and to get a little lost.


A/N: This one is not the Star Wars short story I was hoping for, but it's still a good one I promise! I'll write the Star Wars one for next week when I'm sure the people who really wanted to know what happened and who really cared what happened knows what happened, that way there won't be any spoilers. Even so, I would try to write it so that there weren't super big spoilers.

Disclaimer: I own nothing.

Enjoy!

"I hate that I have to bundle up more than you guys have to," Tori muttered as she shoved another sock over her third pair of socks. The Wayne family, minus Alfred, were being dragged on a snowy business trip Tori included. While she lived with Bruce, she was not formally adopted and therefore not part of his family or used his name. Tori was fine with that, she was a-okay with just being fostered by Bruce or a ward or whatever the hell she was—because at the moment she actually had no clue—,

"Well, you're a Talon, you don't do well in the cold and you love skiing, you can't have it both ways," Tim said, shoving his foot in his ski boot,

"Besides, it's not like anyone will notice you're wearing four pairs of socks and three pairs of hand and toe warmers in your gloves and boots," Dick said brightly, putting on his navy blue helmet,

"I feel like an Oompa Loompa," Tori grumbled, shoving her arm through the sleeve of her fleece,

"You're wearing a _parka!"_ Tim pointed out, "And _snow-pants!"_

"That means nothing," Tori said, side-glaring him, "I still feel like I'm a super-sized hippo,"

"You don't have to come with us,"

"And stay in the hotel room by myself all day? Are you kidding me?"

"Bruce is,"

"No, he's working all day, which I think defeats the purpose of having a business trip someplace where you can ski,"

"He's coming out after lunch," Dick assured her,

"He actually _skis?"_

"Well…not as much as he used to," Dick said with a shrug, "Dami! How's it going with those ski boots,"

"These contraptions are medieval torture devices!" came the growled reply,

"I'll take that as horribly," Dick muttered to himself, "I'll help you!" he called, moving past Tim and Tori,

"Has Damian ever gone skiing?" Tori asked her brother,

"Not that I know of," Tim replied, "Dick and I have gone every year this stupid business trip has happened. But that was before Damian lived with us…I think they skipped a few years since they haven't had a new client in a while,"

"Well this will be interesting," Tori said with a smirk.

* * *

"Okay, so remember to keep the straps over your wrists and to turn every once in a while. You don't want to just bomb down the mountainside like a rocket," Dick told Damian as they stood at the top of their first run. It was a green, since they had a beginner with them—said beginner hated being referred to as 'beginner'—,

"I _know_ Grayson you told me ten times already!" Damian snapped,

"He's just making sure you don't go flying off the side Demon," Tim retorted,

"I think I'm intelligent enough to know not to do that,"

"Well, there's also the other skiers and snowboarders to worry about," Tori stated, "They can cut you off and make you run right over the edge," she made a whooshing sound and a puffing noise to further elaborate her point,

"Quit scaring him you two," Dick said, shooting them a glare,

"What! We're just teaching him the dangers of skiing," Tori said, in her most innocent voice,

"I'm not scared!" Damian snapped, glowering at her, "It'll take more than a purple puff ball to scare me," Tori glared at Damian,

"We are currently all puff balls," Dick said, trying to mediate the arguing,

"Well then, if you aren't scared, let's go," Tori said,

"Whoa there. We can't leave yet, we have to wait for the others," Tori and Tim groaned. They had to wait for Bruce's partners and clients' children to meet them at the top of the run before they went anywhere. All the kids had proved to be spoiled, rude and arrogant to an impressive degree. Not only that but they can't ski to save their life,

"Dick, Damian's a fast learner, he won't want to go on greens all day," Tim said,

"And neither will we," Tori added, "You promised we'd get to go to the terrain park and do tricks,"

"I'm sorry, my hands are tied. We can't lose them and we can't ditch them. They'll complain to their parents if we do,"

"Um…Grayson?" Damian said quietly,

"Not now Dami," Dick said, "Besides, Bruce needs to get this arrangement done—,"

"—Grayson?" Damian said, more urgently than before. Tim and Tori ignored Damian as well since they were too busy glaring at Dick,

"—Don't look at me like that," Dick said, "We need to help Bruce. It's only for a day. They'll complain and won't come out tomorrow,"

 _"Grayson!"_ Damian yelled, grabbing all of their attention to him as he slid down to the blue trail—not the trail they picked—backwards, "How do I stop!?"

" _Shit,"_ Dick groaned, "You two help him and get back up the lift while I wait here for the Bernigens and Wintersons," Tim and Tori rolled their eyes but shuffled after Damian, who was still trying to turn himself around,

"You know, we could 'get lost' and conveniently find the terrain park ourselves," Tim said as they made long sloping curves after Damian, who had finally managed to turn himself forward,

"That is a very devious plan, Brother," Tori said with a slight smirk as they crossed over closer to where Damian was, "I am totally up for it if Damian doesn't rat us out,"

"We'll quickly teach him, it shouldn't be too hard,"

"Damian, turn the front of your skis inward to stop!" Tori called to him, which he thankfully did right before falling over into a snow drift, "Perfect," Tori said with a grimace. Tim and Tori slid to a stop next to Damian who glared up at them with his skis criss-crossed under him,

"Not a word," was all he said,

"Not even a few to get you back on your feet?" Tim asked,

"Shut up, I can get up myself,"

"Okay then. We have a proposition for you," Tori said, as Damian struggled to a sitting position,

"Which is?" he grunted as he tried to lift himself up by his hands,

"We ditch Dick and the snobs and hit some trails ourselves,"

"Fine," Damian snapped, "As long as I don't go backwards aga—,"

"—Wait, don'y get up like that you'll go…" Tim started only to cut himself off as Damian, who had finally gotten to his feet with a triumphant smile, tilted backwards off the edge of the trail and into the woods,

"…backwards," Tim finished as they both stared at where the eleven year-old had been a few seconds before,

"Oh my God. _Damian!"_ Tori screamed down into the woodsy area, "Are you okay!?" A few seconds of dead silence followed, making Tim and Tori glance at each other with a very fearful and worried expression. Tori almost decided to jump down after him and get him out since she could heal faster than he or Tim could,

"…yeah!" came a faint reply, "A tree stopped me!" they both let out a sigh of relief,

"C'mon, let's go find him," Tori said, pulling herself forward and weaving through the trees trying to find where Damian ended up, Tim a few feet behind her.

* * *

"Oh this is not your day, isn't it?" Tori said when they finally found Damian, he had went surprisingly far for a woods area and going backwards. She had been worried that he'd actually flown off the side of the mountain or something,

"Shut up Crowne," he grumbled as Tim helped him snap back into his skis,

"Okay, let's get out of here and find the lift," Tori said, they all carefully and with no accidents finally made it out of the wood trails and to a main trail. But there was a problem,

"Where the _hell_ are we?" Tim said looking around, trying to find a recognizable landmark. He looked over at Tori who shrugged helplessly,

"Don't look at me, amnesia remember? I don't remember this mountain at all!"

"And I've never skied before," Damian snapped,

"You did fine," Tori said,

"Shut up," he retorted, though he sounded pleased,

"I think we should go left,"

"You think Drake?" Damian demanded, "Don't you have a trail map?"

"…No…Dick had the only one,"

"Well that's just bad planning," Tori sighed, "And we shouldn't just ski around hoping to find a way out,"

"Well we should at least ski to where a sign is," Tim said,

"Then we should call Grayson. He's probably called the entire Justice League to send search parties for us by this point," Damian said, rolling his eyes,

"Okay, then I say we go left," Tim stated. Tori and Damian rolled their eyes but followed him.

The trail they were on was pretty smooth and well groomed, but then they got to a shoddy patch that had moguls,

"Shoot," Tim said before glancing at Tori and Damian, "You've done moguls before right?"

"Yeah," Tori replied, "But this isn't something for beginners," they both glanced at Damian,

"Don't look at me like that, I can do anything you can do,"

"Let's call Dick first though," Tim said, "That way he doesn't think we're all dead," he pulled out his phone as he spoke and dialed the number. Tori and Damian waited quietly next to him. Damian was looking down at the moguls with an apprehensive expression while Tori wiggled her toes and fingers to make sure they were still moveable and not stiff as stone. It was getting colder and cloudy which implied snowfall, not good for a Talon. She really probably shouldn't have gone out that day, but she liked to ski. Maybe not as much as she loved soccer and gymnastics or martial arts but it was something she and her family did together every winter. They had a lot of memorable moments during their ski trips. Grant perfecting his front flip when he was fourteen, Liam getting a concussion when he hit a jump unexpectedly and his 'I'm not actually high but I sound like I am' episode that followed the incident and Tori and Ali sitting next to each other with marshmallows on spear forks over an open flame making s'mores on Ali's birthday. Tori remembered skiing down her first black diamond and how proud she'd been. She couldn't help but smile at the memory,

"Damnit," Tim growled, snapping Tori back to the present, "There's no signal. We'll need to reach the bottom in order to try again. Damian, are you sure you're up for this?"

"I can do it," Damian snapped, though he didn't seem sure,

"I could carry—,"

"—Don't finish that sentence if you wish to live," Damian growled,

"Okay…no need to threaten,"

"He does it all the time, I have no idea why you are so surprised by it," Tori stated with an eye roll which Tim glared at,

"So, you going to go?" Tori asked, looking at Damian,

"You should go first," Damian said, "So I know how to maneuver myself," Tori shrugged, "Tim go behind him,"

"Why!" Damian growled, "I do not need—"

"It's in case you _fall!"_ Tori snapped, "If we are both ahead of you and you fall we can't help you and we wouldn't know that you even fell. It's for your safety and you really shouldn't question why we'd be concerned about that!" Damian blinked at her through his goggles before letting out his signature 'tt.' Tori, pulling back her retort launched herself over the edge and started through the moguls.

Damian did just fine on the moguls. He only fell twice, once he skidded over some ice and landed on his side and the second he popped out of his skis. After those falls he actually let Tim instruct him on how to maneuver around the lumps of snow without falling and how to detect whether there was ice over the snow ahead of him.

It was surprisingly empty where they were skiing but it turned out they had been on a trial that led directly to the ski lift they needed to meet up with Dick. The oldest of them himself was waiting anxiously by the ski lift lines looking around worriedly. When he finally saw them his facial expression morphed from surprise to relief to anger,

"Where the hell were you guys!?" he demanded, the Bernigens and Wintersons were standing on their skis and snowboards a few feet away with bemused expressions on their faces,

"It's not our fault Damian insisted on falling off the trail and through to another!" Tim snapped,

"Yeah, and it wasn't our fault that none of us had a _map,"_ Tori said giving him a look and crossing her arms, "We had no idea where we were,"

"…Oh," Dick sputtered, before straightening himself up and trying to look somewhat responsible,"Well…you still should have called,"

"No service," all three of them deadpanned. Dick sighed,

"C'mon, let's go to the terrain park. The others want to go in," he said, waving nicely at the four girls and three boys that were the Wintersons and Bernigens. The Wintersons were two boys: Justin and Max, and one girl: Candace while the Bernigens were one boy: Cooper and three girls: Maddison, Lacey and Saree. Tori hated them all, except maybe Cooper, he was decent,

"Yes! Finally some tricks!" Tim cried,

"Fine, but you still need to teach me how to do this thing called _SKIING!"_ Damian snapped,

"Yes, we can go on a few blues and greens before the park, but let's actually do this before I literally freeze," Tori agreed as they all shuffled off to the ski lift line,

"When is father coming out?"

"Soon, probably another hour or so," Dick said, "and I told you the others would go in soon. You didn't have to stall,"

"We didn't stall!" Tim cried, as they shuffled forward again, Dick throwing out his arm to keep Damian from plowing into a snowboarder ahead of them, "Damian actually fell off the trail through the woods and onto another trail,"

"Well, we _were_ planning to ditch you and the others, but then all the issues happened so we couldn't really do that," they let the people in the other line go ahead of them because they needed to alternate which line went first,

"I had to do moguls to get back here Grayson, _moguls!_ We couldn't stall even if we wanted to!" Damian cried as they all shuffled up to the line for the chair,

"All right all right, yeesh. Let's get going before the park crowds up." With that said they settled onto the life in a comfortable silence, excited to start skiing the way they wanted to.

* * *

A/N: Hope you liked this one! Any questions or concerns please PM moi! Remember to REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW and tune in weekly for another chapter of _Things to Resolve_ if you are keeping up with it!


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